Group Riding Safety:Planning and Leading Group RidesSuggestions for Ride Leaders

The following guide
is intended to cover the fundamentals of planning and leading a
group ride. It is not a definitive source of information on
the subject. For every suggestion on how to lead a group ride
there are numerous alternatives and exceptions. And as always,
there is no substitute for good judgment. For additional
information you may wish to visit the web sites listed in the back
of this guide.

Note: also
see the NER guide, “Suggestions for Group Rides.” It too has
suggestions for group riding

A pre-ride
meeting before the ride begins.

Planning and Leading Group Rides
Suggestions for Ride Leaders

So why
lead a group ride?
Here are the actual words from a few of your fellow New England
Riders when they were asked that question -

When
planning a ride I keep thinking about how much folks will enjoy
it…

I like to
share great roads with friends

I want to
give back to the group that accepted me so graciously and with
hopes of encouraging other NER'ds to do the same.

By sharing
the responsibility of finding the roads, places to eat and all
else that goes along with putting together a ride, I feel that I
have helped more people get out to ride...

Leading a
successful ride is rewarding and satisfying to me. It's a nice
boost!

…morning
of the ride anticipation seems greater when I'm going to lead
the ride.

But most
of all...IT'S FUN!

It does
take a little more effort to plan and lead a group ride but the
rewards are great – and it is fun. After all, it’s all about
enjoying the ride and making friends along the way.

Ride
Planning – things to
think about when planning rides.

Pick the
dates that work for your schedule. Don’t overly worry if there
is another ride planned for that weekend. There are always
riders who cannot go on one ride but can on another. Enjoying
the ride with fellow riders is what’s important – not the number
of riders attending.

You are
the ride leader, you get to pick where you want to go.

iMaybe the roads you know well
are good to start with. Or perhaps, explore new areas and then take
some friends so they can enjoy what you found.

ii.
There are rides that are just about the riding while there are other
rides that are destination rides and yet others that may include
stops for special events, museums, music, etc. Again, it’s your
ride. What would you enjoy? Chances are some other riders would
too.

iii.Try
to pick a start meeting point with a gas station near by so all can
fill up.

Duration
of ride – a few hours, a full day or overnight – the longer it
is the greater the planning needed.

Number of
bikes & co-riders.

i.Larger
groups may limit your choice of food, fuel and comfort stops as not
all locations can accommodate larger groups.

ii.In
heavy city traffic half dozen bikes is hard to keep together. On a
remote road in New England a dozen or more is easy.

iii.When
the group gets too large it is best to split it into multiple groups
each departing several minutes apart. Some experienced ride leaders
suggest groups of only 6 bikes, but under the right conditions
others are comfortable with 12 or more. CB communications can help
to manage larger groups.

iv.Limit
the number of bikes? For any number of reasons you may want to
limit the number of bikes on your ride - and that is OK. Maybe a
number that you feel comfortable leading or the number of riders
that a restaurant can accommodate, etc. It’s your ride.

v.On
your first ride as a ride leader you may only want a few bikes.
With experience you may be open to have more riders join you.

Microsoft
Street & Trips is probably the most widely used mapping software
in the motorcycling community. GPS’s and their accompanying
software programs are being used with more regularity.

Some tools
(MS S&T being one) enable you to specify the start time and the
time planned for each comfort and fuel stop. It then provides the
expected time of arrival at each spot along the ride and the ride
completion time. It makes it easy for others to join a ride while
in progress as it can be predicted when you will arrive at various
locations.

Points of
Interest are listed in mapping software and GPS’s in addition to
the Internet.

Fuel & comfort stops
–

Fuel stops.
Most bikes can go at least 100 miles without refueling. When
picking gas stations consider how many pumps they have vs. the
number of bikes in the group. A typical refuel/comfort stop with
4 gas pumps for 12 bikes is 30mins.

Comfort
stops – time between stops. The more people there are the higher
the likelihood that someone could use the facilities in 60
minutes, and that someone is very uncomfortable in 90 minutes. If
a rider becomes distracted due to a physical condition they will
not enjoy themselves and they could represent a safety risk as
they may not be concentrating on riding. Humor aside, think
safety and common courtesy when planning stops.

Comfort
stops – picking locations. The more toilets the better but
hopefully there are at least two. Again, with 12 bikes, some with
co-riders, it typically takes at least 30 minutes with two toilets
before the group is ready to depart.

Check
for adequate parking for all bikes at each food, fuel and comfort
stop. Give higher weighting to those with large open areas of asphalt
vs. pot holed gravel.